Punk, Confrontation, and the Process of Validating Truth Claims
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 2011 Being in the Know: Punk, Confrontation, and the Process of Validating Truth Claims Christopher Richard Penna Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Penna, Christopher Richard, "Being in the Know: Punk, Confrontation, and the Process of Validating Truth Claims" (2011). Master's Theses. 525. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/525 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2011 Christopher Richard Penna LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO BEING IN THE KNOW: PUNK, CONFRONTATION, AND THE PROCESS OF VALIDATING TRUTH CLAIMS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM IN CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY STUDIES BY CHRISTOPHER R. PENNA DIRECTOR: NOAH W. SOBE, PH.D CHICAGO, IL AUGUST 2011 Copyright by Christopher R. Penna, 2011 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank all of the people who helped me a long this process of writing this thesis. I was blessed to have a line of outstanding professors in my program in Cultural Educational Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago, but I want to thank in particular, Dr. Noah Sobe for advising me and encouraging me to believe that I am not crazy to write about punk. Dr. Sobe’s tutelage notwithstanding, I would have never pursued this topic if it were not greeted with such interest from Dr. Robert Roemer. Both Dr. Sobe and Dr. Roemer exemplify the belief in pursuing one’s intellectual curiosity and following the heart to wherever it may lead. Their leadership, expertise, and guidance were invaluable. I would also like to thank my friends at Loyola and beyond who have showered me with encouragement, space, and music. I would be nowhere if it were not for my friends both who are in my life now and those who impacted my past. I will be forever indebted to David and Steve LaPlaca, Kevin Crisp, Mark Bell, Kristin Werner, Cristin Ryan, Bryan Flowers, Brian “Redbeard” Harrington, and Katy Otto for introducing me to punk, grounding me in punk, and exploring the limits of punk together. You all took me under your wing and I am grateful. Additionally, I would like to thank my friends in the Loyola Academy Theology department for their support and prayers, and to my friends in TSMC for e-mails distractions, both group’s sustained me throughout the process. iii Finally, I would like to thank my family. To my parents for constantly pushing me to be at my best and try my hardest, and to my sisters who are great role models, thank you. A special thanks to my sister Suzanne who counseled me and help me edit ALL of the drafts of this thesis. To my in-laws, thank you for putting up with me being huddled in the basement writing on vacations, for all the coffee, and love that you have shown me, I am truly grateful. Last but not least, Amy—my everything. I am so grateful for your love, your friendship, and your care. You have no idea how excited I am to finally convert the study into a nursery. Thank you for giving my life such profound meaning and purpose. I love you. iv For my wife, Amy and my Mom for putting up with a lot of loud screaming music in the house. Punk rock saved my life. Frank Turner TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT v CHAPTER ONE: THE VALIDATION OF EPISTEMOLIGCAL CLAIMS 1 Establishing a Black Epistemology 3 Towards an Epistemology of Hip-Hop 5 The Unique Knowing of Black Feminism 11 From Cultural and Social Expressions of Validating Truth Claims to the Subculture of Punk 14 Punk as the Musical Avant-Garde 16 CHAPTER TWO: “THIS IS MY CRTIQUE! THIS IS MY SUBVERSION!”: THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF PUNK 19 1977: The Beginning (and End) of Punk 21 The Development of American Hardcore Punk 24 Understanding the Dynamics Between Individual and the Scene 24 The Role of Authenticity within Punk 26 CHAPTER THREE: BEING IN THE KNOW: THE MAKING AND VALIDATING OF PUNK TRUTH CLAIMS 30 Critical Pedagogy as a Foundation for a Punk Pedagogy 31 Going Beyond the Hidden Curriculum: Developing an “Underground” Punk Pedagogy 33 An “Underground” Curriculum and the Transmission of Knowledge 35 Counterstorytelling and Punk Pedagogy: Developing a Voice of Confrontation 36 Implications of a Punk Pedagogy on Schools and Traditional Sites of Education 37 CHAPTER FOUR: BANNED IN DC: EXAMPLES OF VALIDATING EPISTEMOLOGICAL CLAIMS WITHIN THE DC PUNK SCENE 39 Validation through Collective Conscience Development 39 Validation through Dialectical Relations: The Band, the Showgoer, and Truth Claims 42 Validation through Word: Riot Grrrl Zines—the Triumph and Pitfalls of Truth Claims 47 A Brief History of Women in Rock Journalism and the Rise of Riot Grrrl Zines 48 The use of Zines in Validating Truth Claims in the Riot Grrrl Scene 50 CHAPTER FIVE: END HITS: PUNK’S CONFRONTATIONAL APPROACH TO EPISTEMOLOGICAL CLAIMS 53 REFERENCES 55 VITA 66 vii ABSTRACT Since the birth of punk, it has been a harbinger of trends within both youth culture and what cultural theorist Theodor Adorno calls the “culture industry”1 (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1947; Adorno, 1971). However, punk has never been fully embraced by the culture industry, largely, by design. Punk arose as a response, borne out of the frustration of a stagnant world that values profit over people (Sabin, 1999, p. 3). Present within opposition is confrontation—which is the very nature of punk. This thesis seeks to exemplify how punk uses confrontation as the instrument through which punk comes to know truths. The matrix by which punk substantiates truth statements is through the collective acceptance through the scene: bands and show-goers—via shows, fanzines and socio-political groups, which build upon other radical epistemologies (e.g. hip-hop & Black Feminism). 1 Culture industry refers to a culture that produces “products which are tailored for the consumption of the masses, and which, to a great extent, determine the nature of that consumption, are manufactured more or less according to a plan” (Adorno, 1971 p. 12-13). This term is explicitly used rather than “mass culture” because Adorno and Horkheimer acknowledged the possibility that art and culture could spontaneously be created by the masses, which certainly occurred in the American punk scene circa 1991, with the explosion of the “Grunge” scene in Seattle, Washington. v CHAPTER ONE THE VALIDATION OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL CLAIMS Someone told me being in the know is the main thing.1 — Ian Curtis, “Novelty” Epistemology is the study of knowledge: how knowledge is conceived, perceived and acquired. Throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries, scholars have debated the varying constructs of knowledge and how knowledge is known, accepted and transmitted from generation to generation (Hall, 1990). Central to any epistemological debate is how knowledge is known to be true and the methodology needed to validate that truth. The post-modern era has ushered in hyper-specialized areas of knowledge. In doing so, a hallmark of post-modernity has emerged: the presumption that knowledge has an intrinsic power that separates the educated and uneducated. Those whose knowledge has been denied or deemed worthless suffer economic, social and cultural oppression (Apple, 1979/2004, p. 61-62). Those oppressed groups—cultural (e.g. hip-hop), social (e.g. Black Feminism), and subcultural (e.g. punk)—therefore, often create alternative truth statements. These alternative assertions of truth oppose the dominant culture’s epistemological claims. Where hip-hop opposes the political injustices facing the inner city Black community, and Black Feminism challenges the personal inequalities, the 1 This line from Joy Division’s track Novelty is deeply symbolic to the band and both the English and American punk scene. To “be in the know” suggests that a special privileged knowledge that sets one a part from the dominant culture. This is particularly significant for punks who purposefully create an alternative community that stands in confrontation to the dominant culture. 1 2 Washington, DC punk scene merges both, the political and personal, to offer an authentic confrontational voice that presents an alternative to the dominant culture. Recent scholarship has begun to examine and elevate these marginalized knowledges. Critical pedagogy proponents have looked at the “local knowledge”2 of groups that have stood at the margins of society. On an epistemological level, hip-hop, Black Feminism, and punk share related roots, which draw from the traditions of progressive3, critical4 and transgressive5 theories. These marginalized groups have unique matrixes by which truth claims are validated. While the epistemological claims of hip- hop, Black Feminism, and punk are different from each other, the methodological process of validating those claims is similar. Each proposes an alternative knowledge to the dominant culture, while methodologically, authenticating these truths through a collective 2 Critical theorists point to the often forgotten or downplayed knowledge of local communities because they do fit to state or national standards of education. However, researchers particularly those exploring issues of multicultural education and “funds of knowledge” research are attempting to elevate the local knowledge by incorporating it into the classroom (Gonzalez, 2005; Moll et at al, 2005; Moll & Gonzalez, 2004; & Gay, 2000). 3 Central to a punk epistemology is a democratization of the “scene.” Therefore, John Dewey’s views on democracy within education are an important theoretical foundation for punk.